WREN, Christopher

Wren’s last work was the Greenwich Hospital. This complex, a royal endowment, was meant to occupy an extended Charles II building. The accommodation was grouped around several courtyards lying one behind the other on an axis horizontal to the Thames. This sequence copied the pattern of Versailles. A unifying motif was provided by the extended colonnade.

Hampton Court Palace is situated on the north bank of the River Thames, c. 23 km upstream from central London. In the building that survives, two main periods of work can be seen: the remains of the Tudor royal palace, begun by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey between 1514 and 1529 and completed by Henry VIII between 1529 and 1547; and the Baroque palace built for William and Mary between 1688 and 1702 by Christopher Wren. The palace has also been continually altered and repaired up to the present day. The Tudor part of the building is probably the most important surviving example of early Tudor domestic architecture in England, and the Wren building contains one of the finest collections of early 18th-century decorative arts in situ.

Hampton Court Palace was originally built at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It was extended during the reign of Henry VIII. After the Restoration, King Charles II and his successor James II visited Hampton Court but largely preferred to reside elsewhere. By current French court standards Hampton Court now appeared old-fashioned. It was in 1689, shortly after Louis XIV’s court had moved permanently to Versailles, that the palace’s antiquated state was addressed. England had two new joint monarchs, William of Orange and his wife, the daughter of James II, Queen Mary II. Within months of their accession they embarked on a massive rebuilding project at Hampton Court. The intention was to demolish the Tudor palace a section at a time, while replacing it with a huge modern palace in the Baroque style. The country’s most eminent architect, Sir Christopher Wren, was called upon to draw the plans, while the master of works was to be William Talman.

Hampton Court became the Versailles of the British royal house. Between 1689 and 1692, William III and Queen Mary had their summer residence built on the site of the Tudor palace. However, this was only one part of a much larger project which included different wings, “the King’s side” and the “Queen’s side,” galleries, courtyards and gardens, and was effectively an architectural response to the Louvre. Essential changes were made to the exterior, so that the building as it now stands should be regarded as a compromise. The lively contrast between the stonework and the red of the brick walls is charming. The French influence is clear in the runs of windows across the fa�ade and the garden fa�ade with its portal and pediment.

The picture shows Christopher Wren’s south front built for William and Mary viewed from the Privy Garden.

Hampton Court Palace was originally built at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It was extended during the reign of Henry VIII. After the Restoration, King Charles II and his successor James II visited Hampton Court but largely preferred to reside elsewhere. By current French court standards Hampton Court now appeared old-fashioned. It was in 1689, shortly after Louis XIV’s court had moved permanently to Versailles, that the palace’s antiquated state was addressed. England had two new joint monarchs, William of Orange and his wife, the daughter of James II, Queen Mary II. Within months of their accession they embarked on a massive rebuilding project at Hampton Court. The intention was to demolish the Tudor palace a section at a time, while replacing it with a huge modern palace in the Baroque style. The country’s most eminent architect, Sir Christopher Wren, was called upon to draw the plans, while the master of works was to be William Talman.

Hampton Court became the Versailles of the British royal house. Between 1689 and 1692, William III and Queen Mary had their summer residence built on the site of the Tudor palace. However, this was only one part of a much larger project which included different wings, “the King’s side” and the “Queen’s side,” galleries, courtyards and gardens, and was effectively an architectural response to the Louvre. Essential changes were made to the exterior, so that the building as it now stands should be regarded as a compromise. The lively contrast between the stonework and the red of the brick walls is charming. The French influence is clear in the runs of windows across the fa�ade and the garden fa�ade with its portal and pediment.

The picture shows a view from the park.

Hampton Court Palace was originally built at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It was extended during the reign of Henry VIII. After the Restoration, King Charles II and his successor James II visited Hampton Court but largely preferred to reside elsewhere. By current French court standards Hampton Court now appeared old-fashioned. It was in 1689, shortly after Louis XIV’s court had moved permanently to Versailles, that the palace’s antiquated state was addressed. England had two new joint monarchs, William of Orange and his wife, the daughter of James II, Queen Mary II. Within months of their accession they embarked on a massive rebuilding project at Hampton Court. The intention was to demolish the Tudor palace a section at a time, while replacing it with a huge modern palace in the Baroque style. The country’s most eminent architect, Sir Christopher Wren, was called upon to draw the plans, while the master of works was to be William Talman.

Hampton Court became the Versailles of the British royal house. Between 1689 and 1692, William III and Queen Mary had their summer residence built on the site of the Tudor palace. However, this was only one part of a much larger project which included different wings, “the King’s side” and the “Queen’s side,” galleries, courtyards and gardens, and was effectively an architectural response to the Louvre. Essential changes were made to the exterior, so that the building as it now stands should be regarded as a compromise. The lively contrast between the stonework and the red of the brick walls is charming. The French influence is clear in the runs of windows across the fa�ade and the garden fa�ade with its portal and pediment.

The picture shows a detail of the garden fa�ade.

Hampton Court Palace was originally built at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It was extended during the reign of Henry VIII. After the Restoration, King Charles II and his successor James II visited Hampton Court but largely preferred to reside elsewhere. By current French court standards Hampton Court now appeared old-fashioned. It was in 1689, shortly after Louis XIV’s court had moved permanently to Versailles, that the palace’s antiquated state was addressed. England had two new joint monarchs, William of Orange and his wife, the daughter of James II, Queen Mary II. Within months of their accession they embarked on a massive rebuilding project at Hampton Court. The intention was to demolish the Tudor palace a section at a time, while replacing it with a huge modern palace in the Baroque style. The country’s most eminent architect, Sir Christopher Wren, was called upon to draw the plans, while the master of works was to be William Talman.

Hampton Court became the Versailles of the British royal house. Between 1689 and 1692, William III and Queen Mary had their summer residence built on the site of the Tudor palace. However, this was only one part of a much larger project which included different wings, “the King’s side” and the “Queen’s side,” galleries, courtyards and gardens, and was effectively an architectural response to the Louvre. Essential changes were made to the exterior , so that the building as it now stands should be regarded as a compromise. The lively contrast between the stonework and the red of the brick walls is charming. The French influence is clear in the runs of windows across the fa�ade and the garden fa�ade with its portal and pediment.

The picture shows the Fountain Court designed by Sir Christopher Wren.

In 1666 the Great Fire destroyed London. Charles II commissioned Wren and his colleagues to submit proposals for the reconstruction. The project miscarried, as Wren’s proposals proved to be unrealisable. But the new building for St. Paul’s and fifty-one further churches were essentially his works.

The official comparison of the scheme with St. Peter’s meant that the question of the plans for the new St. Paul’s was settled. The so-called “great model” of 1673 is on the same scale as Michelangelo’s domed central structure, although after countless changes to the plans, a traditional nave structure was built with its famous gigantic, double-shelled dome (111 meters high) over the crossing.

The main fa�ade combines double-storey pairs of Corinthian columns with flanking towers (not built until 1706-08). The prevailing style is one of academic classicism. In spite of many conceptual alterations resulting from the long period of construction, St. Paul’s, and particularly its dome, became a frequently imitated model for English church building.

The picture shows the west fa�ade of the cathedral.

View the ground plan of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London.

The Trinity College Library in Cambridge is a variation on the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice.

The picture shows the court of the library building.

Even the most ambitious of Wren’s churches, St Stephen Walbrook, has a very plain exterior. Inside it is notable for its perfect geometrical regularity, its craftsmanship of the highest standards, and a complex and ambiguous plan which combines basilican and both Latin and Greek cruciform elements with a centralizing dome rising from eight equal arches supported on columns. The exceptional character of St Stephen Walbrook may be partly due to the patronage of the Grocers’ Company, but it can hardly be accidental that it was designed (the only church begun in 1672) while Wren was concerned with the new and much grander centralized design for St Paul’s that led to the Great Model of 1673.

Restoration work at St Stephen Walbrook, completed in 1987, included the recovery of the original fenestration by opening blocked windows, structural reinforcement and the installation of an altar designed by Henry Moore under the centre of the dome. This concept was inevitably outside the limits of 17th-century Anglican liturgy or seating arrangements; however, the entire loss of its original box pews and other permanent seating had already effectively reduced the interior to the unfurnished spaciousness shown, albeit fictitiously, in 18th-century prints, and the altar in fact complements the dome without destroying the original complexity of readings of the interior.

View the ground plan of St Stephen Walbrook, London.

Even the most ambitious of Wren’s churches, St Stephen Walbrook, has a very plain exterior. Inside it is notable for its perfect geometrical regularity, its craftsmanship of the highest standards, and a complex and ambiguous plan which combines basilican and both Latin and Greek cruciform elements with a centralizing dome rising from eight equal arches supported on columns. The exceptional character of St Stephen Walbrook may be partly due to the patronage of the Grocers’ Company, but it can hardly be accidental that it was designed (the only church begun in 1672) while Wren was concerned with the new and much grander centralized design for St Paul’s that led to the Great Model of 1673.

Restoration work at St Stephen Walbrook, completed in 1987, included the recovery of the original fenestration by opening blocked windows, structural reinforcement and the installation of an altar designed by Henry Moore under the centre of the dome. This concept was inevitably outside the limits of 17th-century Anglican liturgy or seating arrangements; however, the entire loss of its original box pews and other permanent seating had already effectively reduced the interior to the unfurnished spaciousness shown, albeit fictitiously, in 18th-century prints, and the altar in fact complements the dome without destroying the original complexity of readings of the interior.

In 1666 the Great Fire destroyed London. Charles II commissioned Wren and his colleagues to submit proposals for the reconstruction. The project miscarried, as Wren’s proposals proved to be unrealisable. But the new building for St. Paul’s and fifty-one further churches were essentially his works.

The official comparison of the scheme with St. Peter’s meant that the question of the plans for the new St. Paul’s was settled. The so-called “great model” of 1673 is on the same scale as Michelangelo’s domed central structure, although after countless changes to the plans, a traditional nave structure was built with its famous gigantic, double-shelled dome (111 meters high) over the crossing.

The main fa�ade combines double-storey pairs of Corinthian columns with flanking towers (not built until 1706-08). The prevailing style is one of academic classicism. In spite of many conceptual alterations resulting from the long period of construction, St. Paul’s, and particularly its dome, became a frequently imitated model for English church building.

View the ground plan of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London.

The picture shows the Queen’s Drawing Room.

In 1666 the Great Fire destroyed London. Charles II commissioned Wren and his colleagues to submit proposals for the reconstruction. The project miscarried, as Wren’s proposals proved to be unrealisable. But the new building for St. Paul’s and fifty-one further churches were essentially his works.

The official comparison of the scheme with St. Peter’s meant that the question of the plans for the new St. Paul’s was settled. The so-called “great model” of 1673 is on the same scale as Michelangelo’s domed central structure, although after countless changes to the plans, a traditional nave structure was built with its famous gigantic, double-shelled dome (111 meters high) over the crossing.

The main fa�ade combines double-storey pairs of Corinthian columns with flanking towers (not built until 1706-08). The prevailing style is one of academic classicism. In spite of many conceptual alterations resulting from the long period of construction, St. Paul’s, and particularly its dome, became a frequently imitated model for English church building.

The picture shows the nave looking east.

View the ground plan of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London.

Even the most ambitious of Wren’s churches, St Stephen Walbrook, has a very plain exterior. Inside it is notable for its perfect geometrical regularity, its craftsmanship of the highest standards, and a complex and ambiguous plan which combines basilican and both Latin and Greek cruciform elements with a centralizing dome rising from eight equal arches supported on columns. The exceptional character of St Stephen Walbrook may be partly due to the patronage of the Grocers’ Company, but it can hardly be accidental that it was designed (the only church begun in 1672) while Wren was concerned with the new and much grander centralized design for St Paul’s that led to the Great Model of 1673.

Restoration work at St Stephen Walbrook, completed in 1987, included the recovery of the original fenestration by opening blocked windows, structural reinforcement and the installation of an altar designed by Henry Moore under the centre of the dome. This concept was inevitably outside the limits of 17th-century Anglican liturgy or seating arrangements; however, the entire loss of its original box pews and other permanent seating had already effectively reduced the interior to the unfurnished spaciousness shown, albeit fictitiously, in 18th-century prints, and the altar in fact complements the dome without destroying the original complexity of readings of the interior.

View the ground plan of St Stephen Walbrook, London.